A love letter to Berlin

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For decades, musicians have been lured to Berlin for its
underground scene - think Lou Reed, David Bowie and Nick Cave - and
for Kat Frankie, a 28-year-old design graduate from Sydney who made
the move 212 years ago, it has proved an enlivening experience.

Her debut album, Pocketknife, was released this week in
Australia, and the singer-songwriter is one of six musicians
featured in BerlinSong, a documentary by Uli Schueppel
about young performers who have moved to the German city to improve
their craft.

"It's just amazing," Frankie told Sticky. "People go to
Berlin from all over the world for the creative scene - and for the
cheap rent - and being in that environment 24/7, it improves
you."

While Frankie has always written her own songs, it wasn't until
she quit her design job in Sydney and relocated that she began
performing for an audience.

"When I lived in Sydney, I didn't consider myself to be a
musician because I thought that was a very special thing that I
couldn't be part of. When I came to Berlin I realised that it
wasn't actually the case. From the very first show, people would
come up to me and say, 'Hey, I play violin, can I play with you?'
It's a super open scene."

Together with a group of friends, she recorded for a compilation
CD that was to act as a document of the artists in Berlin at the
time, the criteria being you had to be a resident and the song
referenced the town.

Late last year, Schueppel, who also produced The Road to God
Knows Where with Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, heard of their
idea and took it one step further.

He asked Frankie and five other musicians to pen a song about
the city while he filmed the writing and recording process, where
they lived and how they felt about living there.

"You can trace it back to Lou Reed and Bowie. It's sort of a
continuation of that myth in a way," she says.

"A lot of Berlinists were very unhappy (with the doco) because
they were like, 'Berlin isn't that nice and romantic and beautiful,
it's ugly and hard,' and then there were other people who thought
it was wonderful because the documentary was an 80-minute love
letter to the city."

Frankie is in Australia this month promoting
Pocketknife. It is an impressive debut. Her songs are
beautifully crafted with poetic lyrics and her vocal range is
extraordinary. She plays the Rob Roy Hotel in Fitzroy next
Thursday.

ROOT! is the new country-rock outfit formed by DC Root,
otherwise known as Humphrey B. Flaubert from EG's
inaugural Hall of Famers TISM.

The band is denying any connection but judging by the huge crowd
of TISM fans at their first two shows, it's Melbourne's worst-kept
secret.

The band fuses garage punk, country and spoken word on songs
such as I Wish I Was Tex Perkins ("No one calls him Greg.
He is Tex Perkins, he eats roots and leaves"), Spring Me Out Of
Caroline Springs, Caroline and Pauline Hanson Says There's
Christian Muslims Too from their forthcoming album Root
Supposed He Was Out Of The Question.

AC/DC fans have been waiting seven years for a new album and the
obligatory follow-up world tour but those fans are about to be
offered some tasty morsels to whet the appetite.

A new double DVD called Plug Me features interviews and
some incredibly rare footage of the group, going back to a
performance of High Voltage from Australia's King of Pop
Awards show in October 1975.

Other highlights include rare live footage from St Albans High
School and Glasgow and Essex University and one of Bon Scott's last
shows in Nice three months before his death on February 19,
1980.

As with their last DVD release, the second disc focuses on the
Brian Johnson years, and includes AC/DC's cameo performance on
Rock Me, Baby with the Rolling Stones at Sydney's Enmore
Theatre.

In stores from October 13.

No sale

Last week in The Age Sticky suggested that the members
of Birtles, Shorrock, Goble: The Original Voices of Little River
Band, could no longer perform under the name Little River Band
because they had sold the rights to their name.

The band has since informed us that they didn't sell their name;
the original members decided to take a break from touring and
allowed the newer members to continue performing under their
name.

"Then after everyone except Stephen Housden had left the touring
company he announced that a lawyer, who had worked for us, had
transferred the rights to the name and trademark from the holding
company to the touring company and that if any of us tried to use
the name he would sue us," the band explain at http://www.myspace.com/birtlesshorrockgoble.

"At no stage was the LRB name or trademark for sale and no
member of the original LRB has ever received one cent in
compensation from this transfer of our rights . . . Now they have
the name, and we have our memories, and all the gold and platinum
records."

Teeth bared

Sticky's DJ alias, Dr Teeth, was among imposing company
when he DJ-ed at 3PBS's monthly soul night Soul-a-Go-Go at Fitzroy
club Laundry last weekend .

The evening had an ominous start - Sticky fast realised
he was out of his depth when he was asked whether he was "all
sorted for cans and needles".

You see, like the Muppets character from which his name derives,
Dr Teeth specialises in party music, ranging from Little Richard to
AC/DC and De La Soul.

Preferring to play CDs over vinyl, because they are easier and
usually sound better in clubs, the last time Dr Teeth dusted off
the seven-inch vinyl singles for a set it didn't take long to
realise that no one cared whether the Twisted Sister number
We're Not Going to Take It sprang from a rare green
picture disc - so long as it sounded good on the dance floor.

But Melbourne's best soul DJs, Vince Peach (featured,
incidentally, on the EG cover this week), Pierre Baroni and Mohair
Slim pride themselves on their rare record collections, quality
headphones ("cans") and record player needles.

While the purists sniggered about the "scab labour" provided by
this upstart DJ with his shiny CDs, Peach assured us in his deep
north of England accent: "It all sounds good here, Patrick."

Sticky had a fascinating time preparing for his set. On
hearing a rumour that only "pure soul" was allowed in the upstairs
room (and that a DJ had been banished for playing a Fine Young
Cannibals song) he set about weeding out the funk, R&B and
soul-reggae from his roots DJ case.

Forced to confront the existential conundrum "what is soul?"
Sticky came to the conclusion that, aside from tempos and
bass lines, soul is about the voice.

While it is always thrilling to play your favourite rock songs
on a powerful club system, there is nothing like the sound of
Curtis, Otis, Aretha, Al Green and Mavis Staples opening up their
lungs and filling the room with love.

The night is so popular these days, there was barely room to
dance, so Dr Teeth took advantage of the on-stage couch behind the
go-go dancers and the soul gurus who, despite playing soul hits for
the 10,000th time, still revelled in them like 16-year-old kids
first discovering them.

Sticky revelled in the experience and hopes to be asked
back, preferably in the downstairs bar where Toots and the Maytals,
Booker T and the MGs and Betty Davis are permitted. He promises not
to play any Fine Young Cannibals.

Kissing and rocking

Sticky was at the Southbank media showcase for
Melbourne vocal powerhouse Vanessa Amorosi a couple of weeks
ago.

Amorosi is seemingly looking to leave behind the Shine
days.

She has employed a rocking backing band for her coming tour,
which hits The Prince on October 18.